Bonnie Tyler – Holding Out For A Hero

I’ll be honest, I first heard this on Shrek 2, and I thought “hmmm, she’s singing it well, this Jennifer Saunders woman. Maybe I should look the song up.” That was when Shrek 2 came out on DVD. Since then, it took until 2 years ago for me to actually find and get the song. Yeah. Sad, right?

I’ll start with the music first this time. You know what? I love the drumming, or what sounds like drumming. For a lot of the song it’s just bashing away as fast as the drummer can and it’s the right beat for me to do a sort of leg-slapping bop to, and I love it. Plus, it sounds a bit like rolling thunder, which everyone adores.

Of course, I can’t sing this song in a social situation, unless everyone else is, It’s like “In The Navy”. You sing it and everyone assumes you’re a homosexual, and although I have nothing against that community, I am not a part of it, nor do I intend to EVER be a part of it and any mistaken involvement in such a group would probably be detrimental to my belief in my own heterosexuality. Small rant aside, let’s look at the lyrics.

It’s a woman, in peril, waiting for her hero to save her. Who he is, and where he is, is unknown, but he’s her superman, and could be a god-like figure. All in all, she’s got a sweet sounding deal and he’s under a lot of pressure. I both envy him, and hope to God I never become him. It’s tough, really, being a fat, intelligent and word-happy reviewer, sometimes, when you know you’ll never really save anyone from anything, and that saving people is just something you’d love to do, regardless of the personal risk to yourself… Strange…

Second mini-rant over, let’s discuss the build-up. Yes. The build-up. I like build-ups, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned. The drumming here, is a sort of build-up, to my ears. It’s quick, but it stays quick and before a climactic series of”aaaaaaaaahhhhh”‘s, it sort of stops for a bit and to me, that’s great, because it tells you that something was happening. A series of blows against a surface leading up to a rush of euphoric sighing… It’s almost like sex, I suppose…

So, yeah, what do I think. What is my final verdict? Well, It’s not a perfect song, and it’s not a brilliant song, but it is a good song, and as such, not only is it worthy of being in my music collection, but it also scores as follows.